Welcome

Welcome to Catalyst, the most comprehensive state-of-the-art technology for data storage, management, graphing, and analysis! Catalyst utilizes modern mobile devices for real-time data collection on any skill acquisition or behavior reduction target, including various dimensions of those behaviors, such as frequencies, durations, accuracy, probes, task analyses data, discrete trial teaching data, naturalistic teaching data, and more. All of these great data collection tools in one place, with one device, with one easy-to-use interface.

Catalyst device requirements

Catalyst is compatible with the following mobile device products, for your data collection needs:

Getting started

Once you have logged in with your newly-created username and password, you can begin creating students, and adding users. The Administration tab (located in the upper-right corner of the Student Portal) allows you to manage your organization by configuring users, groups, creating students and configuring various organization-specific settings.

Creating a new student

Administration is categorized into sub-sections for easy navigation. From the left-hand menu, choose “Student Cases,” then “Student Case Management.”

To create a new student in the system, click the “Create New Student” link and you will be presented with the new student wizard.

This sequence of screens will guide you through setting up demographics, as well as mastery and baseline criteria for that student.

Creating a new user

Each person who uses Catalyst will need a user account created for him/her. When you enter the “User Management” section, you will be presented with a list of users.

To create a new user, click the “Create New User” link and a popup window will appear.

In this window, you will need to enter the user’s demographic information, as well as a username, password and device PIN. From this page, you can also define which students this user can access. Users can have access to all students, or specific students. If you choose “Specific Students,” you will see a selection box containing all the active students in the system. To assign a user to more than one student, select each while holding the control key. Fill out all the required information, and choose a default security group to assign the user. (The default group can be changed once the user has been created if needed.) To require a user to change his/her password upon login, select the check box stating, “Force user to change password. “

Catalyst offers security measures in the form of “user groups” which are used to create logical groupings of users based on which rights you, as the administrator, wish to control. To learn more about creating and managing security group, see the complete Catalyst User Guide.

Getting started with data collection

Catalyst collects data on increasing verbal behavior and decreasing problem behavior. Once you define behaviors in the Student Portal, the items will be available for scoring in the app. You can begin setting up a student’s program by navigating to the Students Tab, in the upper-right corner of the Student Portal.

Programming for skill acquisition

Acquisition behaviors selected for improvement are entered under the Skill Acquisition tab. There are three levels for organizing your skills: Skill Areas, Programs, and Targets. You can think of Skill Areas and Programs as "folders" which will allow you to neatly organize your learner's programming.

Existing Skill Areas can be renamed, deleted, or archived by right-clicking on the Skill Area tab and choosing the desired action from the pop up menu.

Creating a program

Within each Skill Area, there are further divisions called Programs. To add a new Program to a SkillArea, select the desired Skill Area tab and click the “Create New Program”button.

In the window, type the desired name of the Program and click the “Save” button.

Programs, like Skill Areas, can be deleted and/or renamed by right-clicking on the desired program and choosing an action to perform.

Creating a target

Within each Program, there are further divisions called Targets. A target is a specific skill that has been identified (or “targeted”) for improvement within a program and skill area. To create a new target, select the desired program and choose the “Create Target” link at the bottom of the page. The “Add Target” window will appear with fields to define the specific target.

See the complete Catalyst User Guide for more information about target selection and types.

** IMPORTANT

Once a target has been created, you will need to “Open Target” in order for it to show up on the device

To view and edit advanced options for your target, expand the target’s row by clicking the yellow triangle to the left of the target name.

To learn more about these options, see the complete Catalyst User Guide

Viewing skills acquisition graphs

To view the graph for any type of Skills Acquisition item, simply click on the target’s name in blue. A pop-up window will appear that displays your data.

A pop-up window will appear that displays a graphical representation of your data.

Programming for behavior reduction

Catalyst’s behavior reduction tracking system is detailed and comprehensive. Once in the Student Portal, select the Behavior Reduction tab to begin choosing and customizing the behaviors you wish to target.

From the Behavior Reduction section, you’ll need to add at least one behavior in order to record data on the device. To add a behavior, go to the Behaviors tab, then click the “Create Behavior” link at the bottom of the page.

Type the desired name of the behavior in the text box (for example, “aggression” or “out of seat”). Once a behavior is entered, you must select the type of data you would like to collect. There are four types of behavior data from which to choose: frequency, duration, momentary time sample, and partial interval. Once you have made your selection, click Save.

See the complete Catalyst User Guide for more information about behavior types.

To view any Behavior Reduction graph, click the “Graph” link in the behavior’s row.

A pop-up window will appear that displays a graphical representation of your data.

Connecting the mobile app and taking data

Logging into the app

After downloading the app from the respective app store store, launch the app. Once installed, the app will need to be registered to your organization. This will allow you to begin collecting the data on your device. Enter your username and password; then tap “Connect.”

Once registered, all you need is your 6-digit PIN! To log in, enter your PIN and tap “login.”

Scoring Skill Acquisition Items

To start a Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) session, press the Discrete Trials button, the session overview screen will then be displayed. Tasks are automatically generated according to the settings listed in the Student Portal.

Scoring Behaviors

Behavior Reduction is available from any screen on the device for quick and easy access. By clicking the Behavior tab on the left side of the screen, or by simply shaking the device, a popup window will be displayed.

Other Functions

Taking Video

You can create videos from the app by touching the Videos tab inside the student’s notebook. When the video dialogue window appears, touch the button with the red circle to begin recording. The red circle will begin to blink while recording. When you are ready to stop recording, simply tap the button again. Select “use” to keep the video, or “retake” to take another video and discard the current one.

Composing Notes

You can enter daily notes for a student by tapping the red Notes tab on the left of the screen. You will then be able to type notes for a student. When you are finished entering notes, tap save. The notes will be saved and will remain available for viewing on the device and in the Student Portal.

Viewing Documents

From the Documents tab, you can view documents have been uploaded via the Student Portal (The following file types are supported for uploading: .pdf, .jpeg, .xls, .xlsx, .doc, docx, .png, .gif, .ppt.) From your device, tap the Documents tab in the student’s notebook, and choose your desired file from the Documents List on the left. The document will appear on the right.

Contact Us

For any issues or concerns connecting to or using Catalyst, please email support@datafinch.com, or call 855-598-DATA.